


Leonard in Wonderland

by McBethins



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Alice in Wonderland, F/M, Humorous and fluffy but also dark, Leonard is not amused, M/M, McChekov feels, Minor Violence, Shore Leave episode retold
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-07
Updated: 2013-12-31
Packaged: 2017-12-22 17:48:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,765
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/McBethins/pseuds/McBethins
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A retelling of "Shore Leave" in which Leonard actually follows the rabbit all the way to Wonderland...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Paradise is Fleeting

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came to me at random in the form of a golden plot bunny a few weeks after my editor juliana677 and I watched the original series episode together. She has provided creative input for this and edited for me and I love her<3  
> ...  
> Its not crack I swear.  
> If you've actually seen the wackiness of Shore Leave this is perfectly believable.  
> Anything beats Leonard hanging out with some floozy in a princess dress and getting jousted to death.  
> ...  
> ...  
> I regret nothing!  
> (However I do apologize for THE SHORTEST CHAPTER EVER.)

This new planet had no name, but if he hadn’t known any better Leonard would have called it Earth. The air was crisp and clean, the grass green, sweet scented flora sprung up in colorful beds. It was all very picaresque very “right out of a story book,” very…

“Ya know Pav, this place is right out of a story book, say _Alice in Wonderland_ ,” the Doctor remarked feeling rather chipper as he and Pavel strolled along the planet’s grassy fields arm in arm.

Pavel looked up at his fiancée who wore an easy grin not normally seen on the grumpy man, “The view is rather vonderful,” he agreed.

They walked along in content silence for a minute until a people- sized rabbit with fluffy white fur sped past them chanting about being on time…

Both men gawked in disbelief, turned to each other, gawked again, and then without a word took off after the rabbit. 

“ _You saw that right_?”

“ _Da_ , it was the White Rabbit from Wonderland, like you said Leo!”  Pavel bounded ahead much like a rabbit himself Leonard thought amusedly and then he thought less amusedly how he wasn’t able to keep up with the kid.

“Hey hey Pav wait a sec! Lemme catch up to ya!” the older man stopped running, bending over panting heavily, clutching his knees. When he looked back up the last thing he expected was for the rabbit to be staring him right in the face.

“Hey Thumper,” he wheezed out a laugh, “where the hell did you come from?”

The rabbit looked at him for a split second then darted away.

“Oh no ya don’t!” he ran right after the rabbit, closed in, he was about to catch up about to get the rabbit about to-

“SHIT!” Leonard McCoy tripped over-over what? What the hell-he was falling falling-

-Plunging face first into the dark expanse of an irrationally large rabbit hole. 


	2. Familiar Strangers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll just leave this here~~~  
> 

“Ugh Christ…Pavel? Pavel!?” Leonard shot up instantly shouting for the Russian but to no avail. Only _he_ had fallen…fallen how and where exactly? As he looked around the tiny room composed of a too tiny door, a checkered floor, and dank yellow walls…he remembered just what had happened.

He had fallen down a rabbit hole in pursuit of a rabbit Alice in Wonderland style.

Right.

He had seen some crazy ass shit in his time, but this…this was just…

“Words don’t describe,” he muttered miserably rubbing his throbbing head. The universe was definitely out to get him, though he should have realized something was up when he was actually having a lovely time on a sunny planet with his beloved because that would have been too good to be true and, well, apparently it had been. 

He came to a round wooden table and couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, oh no, I know how this goes,” he said dismissing the cake labeled “Eat Me” and examining the tiny bottle labeled “Drink me.” He juggled it around in his hands, “I just have to take this key, open the door, and then drink this.  Good thing I read the classics…” he muttered dryly, bending down and unlocking the tiny door. “Better take this too,” he placed the cake in his pocket. Popping open the tiny jar he shook his head in disbelief that this was his life, and began draining its contents.

 As he began to shrink it hit him that he was about to be very small and very naked.

“Ya know if this place runs on physics defying-not that I’m a physicist mind you-magic hoohah, the least it could do is figure out a way to shrink me _and my clothes_ ,” he grumbled annoyed. He picked up a now massive black sock and wondered if he could somehow wrap it around himself…or maybe cut off some of his uniform…cut off with what? He didn’t exactly have any scalpels lying around. He let out frustrated grumbles and sat in his pool of blue and black clothing.   _Wait a second.  Dammit man, what the hell is wrong with you?_ He scavenged through his pocket which was now a deep dark tunnel to him and wrangled the cake free. If he ate it outside the door he could just grow back, hah, why hadn’t Alice thought of that?

He lugged his clothes and cake with him, out the door, and into…into…

He had expected bright sunlight streaming through a dense green forest the colors coming from flowers with faces. What he got was indeed a dense forest, but it’s grass was tall, navy blue and its trees were alien, lavender silver white hues with thinly spread branches, and the color came not only from the flora but from a sky comprised of multicolored galaxies spinning stretching tendrils outwards from within the deep expanse of night.  Was it night? For the sky held stars but it seemed as though it held everything too, perhaps it was the entirety of space looking down on him: the entire universe. It reminded Leonard of old stained glass windows but so much more intense, luminous, colorful, so much more.

 _There were_ colorful flowers with faces though and they were not amused.

“Look at him, he’s completely nude! Has he no shame?”

“My word! This cannot be the one the Rabbit promised us!”

Against the backdrop of ridiculing flora, Leonard hastily bit off some of the cake and smiled internally as he felt himself grow back to normal proportions. The smile lasted only for a few seconds however.

"He could've at least had the decency to stay small..." a red blossom scoffed. Leonard's jaw twitched and he stared off in a state of psychological denial before accepting his situation and exploding accordingly, “ITS NOT MY FAULT THE ONLY WAY TO GET THROUGH THAT DOOR AND RETURN TO MY NATURAL STATE IS TO INGEST QUESTIONABLE BAKED GOODS INFUSED WITH HUMAN GROWTH HORMONE FROM HELL!!"

The flowers stared at him blankly for a long moment until one spoke up. "He’s much too angry to be the right Leonard.”

“The right...what the hell are you talking about?? I am Dr. Leonard McCoy and if you've got a problem with that you shouldn't have brought me here in the first place!"

Leonard was about to burst a blood vessel as he argued with the larger than life flowers who kept insisting he wasn’t who he was, but he stopped when he heard a commotion in the distance.

"There you see, I told you I found him!" an indignant all too familiar voice sounded a ways ahead of him.

 

The voice grew louder until one Hikaru Sulu appeared wearing a short-sleeved, yellow suit-vest, accented with carrot decals and a loose cream colored bow around the neck. He had pants to match, and was holding a fencing sword a gold, glinting pocket watch tied around it, and to top it all off where human ears were supposed to be was a pair of long, black furry ears: rabbit ears.  

“You are very late Leonard.”  Sulu-Rabbit told him, tapping his large rabbit foot on the ground to an impatient cadence.

Leonard stared at him in shock for a moment before he managed to recollect his petrified wits and said with a wry smile, “Let me guess, to a very important date?”

Sulu’s nose twitched very much like a rabbit and he folded his arms, “A very important date indeed...You are the right Leonard aren’t you?”

Leonard pinched the bridge of his nose, breathed in deeply, and replied in a slow drawl, “Why don’t you explain the criteria related to being _the right Leonard_. And weren’t you white before…”

_Hope he doesn’t take that the wrong way…_

Sulu-Rabbit opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off as the brush rustled behind him and out popped Uhura with mouse ears, Mini-Nurse Chapel and Mini-Dr. Marcus wearing identical outfits, and _Christopher Pike_ -the universe is a cruel place-with a cane and small gray wings.

There were many, as Spock would say, possible logical responses to this situation however the one that escaped Leonard’s lips was, “…I don’t even want to imagine who the hell Jim is in this universe.”

“Rabbit, please tell me this is the right Leonard. We are running out of time.” Uhura-Mouse spoke impatiently, eyeing Leonard critically.

“You think I don’t know that!” Sulu-Rabbit pointedly swung his fencing sword in the air so that the pocket watch adorning it was gleaming right beneath Uhura’s nose.

Leonard thought Uhura was going to melt Sulu’s sword with the intensity of her enraged, slightly demonic glare when a ghost from his past stepped forward to diffuse the situation.

“Calm down you two, everyone, we must address the matter at hand,” Pike hobbled over placing a kind hand on Leonard’s shoulder. His gentle, old voice made Leonard’s heart sick as he thought about the fate of the Christopher Pike he had known…

“The only way to know if this man is the right man is to take him to the Caterpillar.”

Leonard vaguely remembered something from his childhood about an all knowing, convoluted caterpillar with an unhealthy addiction to mushrooms, and meeting him was not exactly on his to-do list.  

“Right and how the hell is this _caterpillar_ going to know a thing about me?”

Uhura took particular interest in that question and scurried over to Leonard practically beaming at him, “The Caterpillar’s knowledge is absolute.” She said rather proudly, “He will know.”

Leonard raised an eyebrow, “Right and since you clearly aren’t the same as from the real world, just who are you?” he addressed the group at large.

“I am the Black Rabbit,” Sulu-Rabbit told him fancifully manipulating his sword in some kind of display.

Uhura-Mouse pushed him aside playfully and announced herself with less bravado, “I am the Dormouse.”

Next, Chapel and Marcus both stepped forward hands clasped.

Mini-Chapel began, “I’m Dee and she’s Dum.”

“No I’m Dum and she’s Dee!”

Both girls-and they were quite young if their physical appearances were anything to go by in this world- glared at each other all wide blue eyes and pouting lips, “You’ll have to excuse the Twins, they’re a bit…well…you know. Anyway, I am the Dodo. It is a pleasure.” Pike finished for the group.

Leonard nodded trying to wrap his head around all of that. “And I’m, well my identity seems to be in question at the moment.”  
“Yes, we shall see whether you are in fact the right Leonard,” Pike said sagely and somewhat grimly as he wordlessly began to lead the group through the forest to the supposed all-knowing Caterpillar. As they walked the flowers continued to gossip, scrutinize, and well it seemed at least one of them hadn’t minded his nudity.

“Wrong Leonard, I will escort you,” Mini-Chapel spoke ambling for the much larger man’s arm.

“No, it’s my turn to escort him!” Mini-Christine sniffed grabbing Leonard’s other arm.

_Wow, you two never cared this much about me back home._

_“_ You can both escort me,” he smiled as warmly as his frayed nerves would allow. They giggled in delight swinging the Doctor’s arms to and fro.

And as Leonard walked off into the depths of Wonderland? and what was undoubtedly to be the strangest experience of his already bizarre life, he was glad someone could hold his hand. Though, he wistfully imagined one of those hands belonged to Pavel, his gold engagement ring entwined with its partner.   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed C: !!!  
> There's lots more to come~  
> (Also I apologize for my lame chapter titles xD)


	3. Sanity is Fleeting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ~I'll just leave this here~  
> :)

And really Leonard should have seen this coming.

“Hah, I knew you were nothing but a cold blooded worm!”

Spock-Caterpillar raised an eyebrow in disdain taking a long drag on the pipe in his mouth. “What an irrational, ignorant creature. If you require my help, Rabbit, I suggest in the future you surround yourself with guests willing to present themselves in a logical manner.”

The Black Rabbit’s foot was going a mile a minute against the poor, innocent grass as his rabbit ears and nose twitched in irritation. “And I suggest you take that pipe out of your ass and determine whether he is the right Leonard or not sometime before our world ends…!”

The silence that ensued was the type of silence one expected upon discovering their mother’s favorite glass vase had broken. The silence was broken, however, by Leonard.

 “You’ve always been one of my favorites Sulu, you remember that.” The bigger man said clapping the Rabbit man on the back.

Sulu-Rabbit rolled his eyes over to Leonard with an expression that suggested he was not at all amused and he stepped swiftly, but stiffly away from his contact with the other man.

Leonard frowned slightly, studying the rest of the tiny group. They were downtrodden, defeated he realized, none of them not even the small childish versions of his nurses were smiling. Pike especially looked old, weary as if he had seen too much and had never had the chance to recover: when he thought no one was looking the grip on his cane grew tighter desperate even and the look in his eyes was haunted.  

That haunted look was in Sulu’s eyes too: not even his bright yellow suit could lessen it. Rather the melancholy expressions of these people, if anything, looked more pronounced against the backdrop of their fantastical, colorful outfits. 

 Behind the insect version of the Enterprise’s first officer’s emotionless gaze that was so customary of the Spock Leonard knew, there was something well hidden, but nevertheless there; dark and foreboding in the depths of unblinking eyes. For the first time upon entering this unbelievable world, Leonard could truly feel the tension buzzing in the air, the defeat, the desperateness, and he saw not the characters of a child’s book but the characters of a war drama: these people had been through a war.

“In response to your inquiry Rabbit,” Spock paused and for a moment Leonard thought the gaze cast his way held powerful intent behind it, that Spock’s staring eyes were burning into him trying to say something: the bastard never could come right out and say it anyway.  “He is not hardly Leonard.” Spock-Caterpillar finished, standing perfectly stoic in the deep blue of his pinstripe suit jacket, of which the sleeves were rolled up revealing lighter blue tribal markings that Leonard wouldn’t have imagined to exist there. The rest of him was caterpillar and yet Spock somehow looked every bit the majestic all knowing insect the others had made him out to be. The scales of his lower body glinted like the stars ever- present in this world’s skies and the subtle glint of curiosity in his deep, dark eyes Leonard knew all too well.

It twisted something in his heart the way these people could be his friends if they lost a rabbit ear here and a mouse tail there…

“We don’t have time for your riddles, we need to know if he is the right Leonard or not. It is a matter of our lives and our deaths. You know this. Please.” Uhura placed a delicate, but firm hand on Spock’s chest; her tone was solid, but wavering under an unmistakable, churning undercurrent of fear, anxiety, and the need for answers.

Spock trained his unreadable eyes on her as he wordlessly slid some kind of ornery, oddly glowing scroll into her hands, his own hands lingering over hers longer than needed.

 “Unroll the Oraculum,” he ordered.

Uhura stepped back from him slowly, secret messages darting between their deep, dark eyes, and then she was unrolling the great, long scroll across a lavender tree stump for all to see. The twins gleefully explained to Leonard that the Oraculum was a calendar of sorts keeping track of each and every day. He supposed it was good there was some order to these people’s apparent chaos.

“Show him the Frabjous Day.” Spock ordered once more, taking a long drag on his colorful pipes.

“The what now?”

Sulu glared at him annoyed as if he should know everything about the cockamamie magic calendar, the twins were squabbling about something, Uhura was glaring; mysteriously annoyed at Spock, and so it was Pike who pointed to an image on the map, a moving image, of some kind of knight in armor bringing death upon an almost identical figure whose armor was more fearsome and jagged…

“Who the hell is that?”

Sulu deadpanned, “The right Leonard.”

“Excuse me?”

A gentle hand on his arm directed his attention to Uhura’s deep brown eyes, “The Frabjous day is the day you, our champion, slay the Red King; it is fate.” Uhura told him speaking so earnestly he felt suddenly desperate to believe what she was saying, but he could barely understand this madness as it was.

“Now just slow down, I have no idea-” he was cut off by Sulu sounding more venomous than the Doctor ever remembered he was capable of. 

“The  _right_  Leonard is our champion, this man is nothing but a fraud!” and just like that Leonard found himself staring down the blade of a fencing sword.

“Well now if you’re gonna take my head off, may I recommend just below the jugular!” Leonard all but growled.

He continued undaunted by the dangerously close blade, “Ya know I always imagined if anybody I knew ended up killin’ me it’d be Spock! But don’t worry kid; I already said my last words: they were the curses I uttered upon falling down the goddamn hole _you_  lead me to!”

“Rabbit!” Uhura cried over Leonard’s words, in shock hands hovering helplessly.

“Waaah!” the twins cried clinging to Leonard’s legs.

“Now I’m sorry if I’m not the Leonard you’re looking for, because for God sakes I’m a doctor, not some knight in shining armor, but saying off with  _my_  head is a great big barrel of bull shit!” he finished voice pitched to a shout, echoing through the otherwise now dead silent forest.

Panting slightly he forged on, “Now, I could help you! I’m sure that limp when you walk, er, hop is rather unpleasant: I could fix it for ya, unless you’d rather lop my head off because if that’s the case go for it  _Bunny man_!”

He ended in a low hiss, both men staring each other down bristling, boiling on the spot. Uhura noticed a tiny tear of red trace down Leonard’s throat where Sulu’s blade nicked him and that was enough.

She placed her tiny mouse-like hands on his larger rabbit-like ones and slowly managed his sword down and away from Leonard’s face. Sulu’s eyes never left Leonard’s and a wave of absolute frustration passed over him sparking in his solemn eyes, before dissolving into a general mask of annoyance.

This was one desperate rabbit man.

“He’s right Rabbit, you aren’t fooling anyone.” Uhura told him softly looking pointedly at his injured leg.

Sulu looked like he might argue, but Leonard cut him off with a sharp glare rather intimidating with his arms folded across his chest. The Black Rabbit sighed in resignation and for a minute he looked every bit the serene, calm helmsman Leonard knew him to be albeit a little worse for wear.

“I am sorry, its…it’s hard to accept that our Champion…” before he could collect his thoughts, the Rabbit’s ears twitched and his entire being went rigid eyes wide in alarm.

“Oh no.”

“Oh no what?”

“They are coming it is imperative that you all to take leave of this place,” Spock’s voice, though without apparent inflection, carried a current of worry and despair traceable by those who knew him well. His eyes found the one who knew him best; Uhura, and by the lowering of his brow Leonard deduced he was pleading for her to go. And then he was vanished in a puff of blue smoke.

“Who’s coming!?”

Rather than an answer he received two frightened blond girls in his arms and a strong arm guiding him by the elbow.   
“We must run, hurry!” Sulu shouted to the entire group starting away, Leonard in tow, from the ominous rustling, breaking, crashing sounds emanating from the woods.

As the group took off, Sulu and Uhura on red alert, fencing sword and throwing knives glinting in the starlight, Pike realized with something like dread in his gut that no one had grabbed the Oraculum.

“The Oraculum!” he shouted.

Everyone stopped, panic stricken, except for Leonard who ran a ways ahead before realizing Pike’s announcement had stopped everyone else; he was pretty sure their lives outweighed some goddamn magic date-book.

Sulu opened his mouth, but the words that Leonard heard came not from the Rabbit man.

No, these words belonged to a voice that was familiar.

A voice that was familiar, but sounded wrong.

A voice that accompanied a sinister smile, that formed the words, “Looking for this?”

A voice that belonged to Pavel Chekov sitting astride a black mechanical beast, golden armor glinting, hand thrust upwards in triumph over the Oraculum in his grasp.

“P-Pavel?!” Leonard’s remaining wits deserted him and he didn’t even register let alone care how shocked he must’ve looked.

Pavel lazily turned his head towards the unfamiliar, sputtering voice. He stared into the newcomer’s eyes, narrowing his own eyes in confusion, but as the usual troublemakers moved closer to the startled man protectively pointing their meager weapons at him in defense, everything suddenly made sense.

And oh yes as he got a good look at that face…

 A sinister smile eased over his lips as his eyes flicked back to the man. He enjoyed it when everything fell into place like this; it made his job cleaner, no unresolved variables to clean up after.

And this particular variable was very attractive, a live wire, completely masculine, lovely.

Just as anticipated.

An uncomfortable chill ran down Leonard’s spine as Pavel’s terribly familiar eyes trained on him; their compassion, inherent brightness and warmth, replaced with sinister, detached interest and something savage, animalistic brooding in their depths. Pavel dismounted his mechanical bristling, black steed, striding over to his target whilst paying no mind to Uhura or Sulu.

He was so very close, able to taste the breath of his prey as he pried the crying twins away from strong, yet weak-from-shock arms. 

He tossed them aside without a second thought focusing on the tight lipped man whose deep brown eyes displayed several emotions at once though Pavel could only pick out shock, despair, and fear. And those were all that mattered.

Leonard went absolutely rigid, heart freezing beneath the touch of familiar fingers unfamiliarly icy tracing over his jaw line.

Pavel’s face contorted into a wicked grin the likes of which Leonard had never seen had never imagined seeing as he grasped the startled man’s hand pressing cold, pale lips to his skin; all the warmth leaving Leonard’s body at his command.

 He looked up after a moment, smirking sinisterly, and said

 “Hello Leonard.”  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, I probably won't be able to get any more chapters done until the end of the month or the beginning of September because I'm going on vacation and then band camp and school and bluhhh
> 
> But I hope you enjoyed, feel free to let me know what you thinkxD
> 
> THANKS for reading!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CCC:
> 
> (PS I have no idea if "below the jugular" was the right terminology to use, I'm sorry if it wasn't)


	4. Chapter Four (Or the One I can't Think of a Title For but I Hope you Enjoy Anyway)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Dear everyone who actually reads my stuff,  
> I'm so sorry for the gigantic lapse in updating~!  
> Life is hecticcccc ugh  
> But I finally managed to finish this chapter  
> So here ya go C':  
> (Also, I made some minor changes to chapter three because I'm revamping the overall plot so go read that first!)

It had taken an exorbitant amount of inner strength Leonard wasn’t sure he had left to stop himself from shaking this Pavel, this impostor so hard that the ice in his eyes broke apart and melted; his mind told him it would accomplish nothing, his heart hoped, prayed it might anyway.

_He isn’t your Pavel. He isn’t your Pavel. He’s different. He’s…_

Leonard’s thoughts beat against his brain at the same frantic rhythm as his heart beating against his sternum. Beyond the wrongness in this impostor’s gaze and the obvious fear he inspired in those around him, what was the true extent of his malice? What would Leonard do should that malice be displayed?

“…Pavel-“

A slim, cold, pale finger to his lips shushed him. “ _Pavel_ , this name you keep using, what does it mean to you?”

**_Everything_ **

“Nothing,” he looked away, pained.

The smaller man hummed thoughtfully before palming the larger man’s neck, fingers brushing his pulse point delighting in the unnaturally rampant pace of his heart revealed there. 

“Are you nervous Leonard?”  A benign enough inquiry on the surface, though Leonard felt threatened by something unkind hidden in the darkness behind this Pavel’s eyes. 

Leonard scoffed trying to appear as though the mere prospect of nervousness was foreign to him; he was a surgeon after all, but dammit he was so very nervous now.

“No way kid, I’ve seen way too much to be put off by some cocky knight in a fancy suit of armor.”

The knight in golden armor smiled a dangerous smile; a smile that suggested amusement and dark intent all at once. He didn’t walk; he _stalked_ around Leonard easily ensnaring him in a predatory circle.

With each step; a flash of something animalistic in brooding pools of green.

Witch each step, a word sharp as a dagger thinly cloaked by Pavel’s silky tenor and deceptive smile, stabbed at Leonard’s ears;

“And,”

_This_

“Yet,”

_Is_

_“You,”_

_Not_

_“_ are _,”_

_My_

_“_ So _,”_

**_Pavel_ **

_“…_ Very afraid _.”_

Once again a breath apart, the unshakeable feeling he was being played with, a desire to be anywhere but there so strong it amassed in Leonard’s gut, and now the horrified thought; what if something had happened and this _was_ his Pavel?

_NO_

Leonard shook his head violently as though he could physical displace the thought from his head.

Pavel studied him curiously, closely; he leant forward, so unbearably close.

He breathed, “Pavel means much to you I think.”

Silence

And then-

A flash of red-Uhura-flying at Pavel; glinting steel dagger in hand; a silver extension of her own body-

-That lazy, sinister smile-

Time slowing down Leonard’s thoughts too many too jumbled, running in circles ceasing to circulate at all-

A blood curdling scream, the crunch of bones under Pavel’s armored hand.

Pavel’s arm raised higher, Uhura’s forearm caught in his grip, the dagger sliding out of limp fingers. Her beautiful face contorted in agony, eyes screwed tightly shut.

God he had to do something. But it was Pavel or it might be Pavel or- _It was still **a** Pavel_

“Who the hell do you think you are?” he growled low and dangerous, fists clenching and unclenching at his side.

“I,” Pavel began casting a sickly amused side glance at the injured woman in his grip, “Am very tired of these useless assassination attempts.”

“If you’re going to assassinate someone,” He released Uhura who fell to his feet clutching her damaged arm, “make sure you know your target.”

He drew a sword, Leonard’s blood ran cold, and Uhura looked up eyes wet with tears but as fearless as Leonard had known them to be.

The instrument of death brightly gleamed in the starlight as Pavel continued, “For instance,”

The sword; inching nearer, “I know,”

_No_

Nearer; “That you,”

_God_

Bright red blood running down smooth, dark skin, “Are easy to kill-”

_…_

Before it bothered to inform Leonard’s central nervous system, his fist was connecting with Pavel’s face, the sword was clattering to the ground, and Uhura was in his arms as he took off like a bat out of hell.

Of the multitudes of meaningful thoughts Leonard could be having the most prominent was that all those barroom brawls Jim had dragged him to _had_ paid off; he really was a knock out although not in the way the Captain had insisted.   

***

 

Pale fingers gingerly attended a bleeding temple as equally pale lips snarled in a frighteningly bemused manner.

_Oh, Leonard. It really is you._

Pavel laughed.

They thought Nyota had distracted him enough for them to escape.

Fools.

He knew where they were going.

Though, now that Leonard had appeared, he didn’t much care for the others; they were just a thorn in his side.

A thorn soon to be incinerated until it was nothing but ash.

Something orange and small glinted in the corner of his vision. He bent and picked up a tiny carrot cufflink.

“Oh Mr. Sulu,” he smiled.

“You won’t be getting very far.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed~  
> I will try to update again soon~! <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Care for some Star Trek Wonderland au crossover fic with your New Years champagne?

Leonard ran as far as his legs would take him.

Nausea, panic, horror, and other just-as-wonderful feelings floated through his consciousness, clouding his senses and doing nothing to avail him of the sharp burning pain in his oxygen starved lungs.

“Leonard…I can walk…” Uhura muttered even as her eyes slipped shut.

“Sure you can, you’ll get real far while in a state of physiological shock!” he exclaimed sarcastically.

“Leonard!”

“Wha-Sulu?”

“I don’t know what that means, but-“

“What the hell are you people doing here, you should be miles away by now!” Leonard cut him off exasperated.

The Black Rabbit was sitting against a glowing sapphire blue plant-it looked sort of like a tree; keyword; sort of- the Twins were worriedly snuggling against him, and the Dodo too sat miserably on the forest floor.

Leonard took a breath and turned from them. He then set Uhura down and began examining her arm; everyone and everything else could wait; this woman needed medical attention.

The tiny tactical part of his brain thought he should probably make sure they were in the clear first, but how the hell would he even know at this point?

Sulu-Rabbit spoke up sounding worse for wear and out of breath, “Leonard…this is all my fault. I thought she could distract him, I thought this time we would actually get that bastard…I thought-” he shook his head distraught.

 “We were supposed to escape, but…” he shifted his guilty, sorrowful eyes away from Uhura’s limp form to his own leg which was bleeding slowly out onto the crystalline grass reflecting all the colors of the galaxy-ridden sky above.

“I couldn’t make it. And these stubborn fools wouldn’t leave me.” He bit his lip as he became emotional, restrained tears thickening his voice.

“You have to save them. I don’t care about myself. Just…” he hung his head, ears flopping over his eyes dejectedly.

Leonard paused though he didn’t turn his gaze from Uhura’s _shattered_ arm. Christ that bastard was stronger than he looked. And didn’t that realization just sink to the bottom of the Doctor’s gut like a ton of rocks.

“Hey kid, don’t go giving up like that. I still don’t really know what’s going on here, or if you people are actually figments of my imagination er somethin’, but rabbit ears or no, _Hikaru Sulu_ does not give up.” He jabbed a finger at the Rabbit, his eyes narrowed intently as that universal truth left his lips.

An ear rose up slowly, uncovering half of the Rabbit’s face. “…I…”

_Scccccrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeee_

An unearthly noise filled the air effectively rendering the Rabbit speechless for the second time that day. And as Leonard was beginning to realize, things that silenced Sulu-Rabbit were not conducive to his physiological wellbeing, or lifespan.

“What in God’s name…” he stared in awe but mostly disbelief as the day’s events somehow got worse.

It looked like a lumpy volcano crag come to life, skittering back and forth in an anxious, fearful, yet violent dance. though it lacked distinguishing features and maybe because it lacked them, the beast seemed to be one churning, smoldering black, dark mass, its soul caught on fire there in the red orange lava of  its back: burning silently in the stifling confounds of a quiet rage that had no means of escaping on words the creature could not make.  
Leonard felt sorry for it despite its obvious intent to perform homicide in his general direction.  
"Leonard! Hurry and get out of here!" Sulu-Rabbit shouted shoving the older man out of the beast’s path, his sword in front of him in one fluid, elegant motion, angled towards said beast.  
"Hey wait a minute that thing will burn you alive! What the hell do you think you’re doing!?" he made to grab Sulu, but a streak of red in his peripheral vision-Uhura-collided with him: as the lava creature, blazing, charged at Sulu, Leonard and Uhura fell to the side.  
"Sulu!" he shouted desperately at the courageous swordsman who now lay unmoving on his back, red swirling from his lips spilling out tightening, choking, drowning the deep, somber blades of grass. His fanciful clothes were ruined, charred and smoke rose from his roasting form like ghostly hands reaching for the starlight. 

The fiery beast seemingly shuddered, emitting sputtering sounds which oddly enough sounded like the choked cries of someone in pain: did the monster cry tears of fire for the lives it burned?  
Leonard came to his senses as smooth hands urgently upon him, pushed him back and words of warning intently surged in his ears: "Even if you are not the right Leonard you are a healer are you not? You must be able to heal this place..." Uhura wheezed, her expression wilted, and Leonard connected it to the blood he now saw seeping from a wound in her abdomen, almost hidden entirely by the matching colors of her dress.  
"Yea and dammit I can heal you." his voice brokered no argument despite its strained timbre. He made to pick her up again as the beast’s wails sounded in the distance, but closer than before.

“No. You must leave me, run, run Leonard, and save us all.” She loosed herself from his arms and with strength and poise she should not possess crawled over to Sulu laying her head on his shuddering chest. The beast, for reasons he did not understand, ceased its movements, and sat heavily, heaving fire. It appeared to be waiting for something.

 And Leonard could only watch the whole thing in stupefied silence.

When the same thundering clopping that had alerted him to Not-Pavel’s arrival before sounded in the not too distant distance, Leonard took off with one last regretful glance towards his fallen anamorphic friends.

There were several thoughts bouncing around in his head as he ran like a bat out of hell, heart hammering a mile a minute: What would become of Pike and the twins? Who was that terrible fiend who wore the face of his lover? Would Sulu and Uhura live? And how had that creature attacked, he wished he had seen it if only to put his medical mind at ease in terms of trying to reason whether the punctual fencer lived or died. God he hoped this was just a nightmare. Or an illusion. Maybe Jim had gotten him mad drunk someplace and this was result…no this was too real. Way to real to be a dream, though it was certainly phantasmal in nature.

Of course, the most prominent thing on his mind was that Spock (who had been no help what so ever) was the shittiest caterpillar boyfriend who ever smoked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So basically life took a turn for the crazy and it took me forever to find the time to write! 3  
> (This chapter is brought to you from Christmas break free time)  
> I'm going to keep writing this thing, but updates are gonna be pretty sporadic I am sorry to say...  
> Well as always, thanks to everyone who reads my stuff, hope you enjoyed, feel free to comment, etc.
> 
> And have a Happy New Year!:)
> 
> ((and yes the beast is based off the Horta from tos Devil in the Dark episode and I realize "scree" is the sound metroids make, but I couldn't think of anything else))

**Author's Note:**

> I have no idea how many chapters this will be and updates could get spread out because life is getting hectic what with school starting up again/bandcamp/lookingatcolleges/life and what not so for that I apologize!  
> but anyway~  
> THANKS FOR READING C:  
> <3<3<3<3<3<3<3<3


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